In Pure Spirit

For open minds

Incredible photographs show nature reclaim a transport ship with a floating forest

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In Homebrush Bay, Sydney, Australia you can see a remarkable floating forest. The remains of an abandoned transport ship, a 1911 steam collier, is slowly being overgrown by a forest. Humankind has helped. From 2008 to 2010 there was an effort to remove chemicals from Homebush.

These incredible photographs come from Bruce Hood, Andy Brill and Stephane & Eva. The set was first made public by This is Colossal.

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There are many other amazing photographs of nature reclaiming wrecked ships. Do you have any favourites? Why not share them in the comments below.

Really tempted by a holiday in Australia? Sites like eBookers.com and Expedia are often helpful starting points. One of my favourite travel alternatives is a site called Responsible Travel, all about sustainable holidays, where you can book trips like a Great Ocean Walk, a Head of Bight whale tour or even a Tasmania wildlife holiday.

Discover the most radioactive places on Earth

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The important difference between ionizing radiation and the sort of radiation you might get with your smartphone is brought to life in this strange tour video. Two sieverts of radiation will kill you. A banana has 0.1 microsieverts.

In order to compare normal radiation (and we can use bananas as comparison now) this brave team goes to some very strange, interesting and radioactive places.

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Would you ever suit up and go on a radioactive tour? Or would you much prefer to spend your summer holidays on a beach in the sun?

Haunted IGA supermarket in Adelaide

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A supermarket in Australia is in the centre of a high profile haunting debate – with believers and sceptics being vocal on both sides. The IGA supermarket came to mass public attention after an Australian TV show didn’t just discuss a possible haunting – but showed CCTV footage of a package apparently flying off the shelf.

As discussed in the show there was a murder just outside the building. Could this death have been enough to manifest a spirit?

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What do you think? Is this paranormal activity caught on camera?

Red Aurora Australis

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The aurora borealis are the northern lights and it is not uncommon to find some fantastic videos of impressive green and blue aurora borealis on the internet.

Less common are the southern lights or the aurora australis.

By the time we get to red aurora australis we’re watching some pretty rare video footage.

This was filmed in January in 2012 on the Southern Coast of Australia. Enjoy.

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Did you know that the ancient Cree, the Native American tribe, talked the aurora the “Dance of the Spirits”.

Have you ever seen any aurora yourself?

Extreme winds cause Australian waterfalls to flow backwards

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This video shows how extreme winds that have been battering Australia has started to cause waterfalls to spew their charge backwards and up into the air rather than forwards and downwards off the cliff face.

The video went live on the 20th of July 2011 in a week where nearly a month of rain had fallen on Sydney in just 24 hours and wind speeds had reached 120km/h.

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What’s the most spectacular video or image of waterfalls that you know about? There are some truly amazing images out there on the web.

Experience Human Flight

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This video is an advert for a sky diving centre in Melbourne Australia. One of the last things I noticed in the video was that this was for an Australian company – up there, in the sky, the concepts of countries seem far less important. Even big ol’ Australia. Instead we’ve the sky and the Earth.

Isn’t Earth beautiful?

There’s no question about it. As much as I find this video stunning this is a hobby I’ll never adopt. Throwing myself out of a plane is against my survival instinct.

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What do you think? Is this gorgeous enough to tempt you into a parachute?

Is this spider cute or creepy?

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Without a doubt there are many people who’ll always say “Creepy!” when presented with a spider. There will also be those people who run away in fear.

Nevertheless there are some people out there who rather like spiders. Let’s introduce the peacock spider. It’s very small and likes to jump around. Jurgen Otto may have the first film of the peacock spider’s mating behaviour.

Is it cute? It may well depend on whether you’re talking about the male spiders or the female.

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What do you think? Quirky little spider – but is it cute or creepy?

WWF Moths: Earth Hour

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At 8:30pm on March 26th we’re turning out lights off for Earth Hour. This isn’t the first time the globe has had an Earth Hour. You should know about it by now.

But what if you don’t know about it? What if you’re the only one who doesn’t turn the lights off at 8:30 in order to draw attention to climate change?

In Australia this is the question that ad agency Leo Burnett tried to answer!

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What are you planning to do on the 26th and for Earth Hour? Are you planning on turning the lights out?

Australian man burns witches house after “sex curse”

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In the Northern Territory, Australia, David Laurin has been sentenced to three years for burning a woman’s house down.

Laurin, 31, pleaded guilty to the charges as the court heard he believed the woman was a witch who had cursed his sex life.

In the NT Supreme Court, Chief Justice Dean Mildren heard how David Laurin met his girlfriend Kelly on the internet.

His relationship with Kelly went downhill and they split up in January 2009. Kelly’s since given birth to their child.

A psychiatrist told the NT court that Laurin had a “borderline personality disorder“. The psychiatrist also blamed the role of “internet wars games” played in Laurin’s life; suggesting they helped form his identity.

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Do you think Laurin got what he deserved? Is the psychiatrist did the right thing by pointing a finger at the internet?

Bundanoon bans bottled water

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The Australian town of Bundanoon has raised the bar of ecological wisdom by voting to ban bottled water.

Why? A tremendous amount of resources goes into bottled water; there’s the extraction, the packaging and then the transport. In many cases, there’s the litter afterwards too.

Image by bitchcakesny via Flickr

In many countries, the health quality standards of tap water are stricter than bottled water ones.

For example, in the UK the quality of water from the tap is held to a higher standard than from the bottle.

The reason is simple; problems with the mains supply are a horror to fix, affect thousands of people and are best detected and prevented early. Bottled water is easier to deal with.

Bundanoon is a small town with less than 2,500 in population but perhaps this is the starting moving in a more popular trend.

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Do you drink bottled water? Would you support a ban in your home town or city?

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This blog discusses ideas and causes. Urban myth, science and faith combine here. So do editorials and technology; In Pure Spirit uses affiliate marketing and some links might earn us money. You can read more about that here.

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